By Kazuma Ogiwara and CARIMARICA. Released in Japan as “Isekai Toushou no Maken Seisaku Gurashi” by Kadokawa Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ryan Burris.

I mentioned online that this is one of the most testosterone-laden series I’ve ever read, and that remains true in this book. A lot of everything driving the plot here can be summed up as “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do”. Lutz and Claudia are still very in love and very sexually active, and Claudia, while she is also brilliant and gets other things to do, remains very defined by her voluptuous body. We get more katanas given out here, and one of the men who receives them is basically “MANLY: THE KNIGHT”. Unfortunately, another man who received a katana is driven by an all-consuming guilt, and it’s that that drives the second half of the book, where we gets more battles, some nasty horror, and another thing that has to be taken care of or it could mean the end of the kingdom. And yes, Lutz has to be involved in all this, much to Claudia’s chagrin. Because, well, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

Gerhard has a new assignment for Lutz and his “disciples” – forge thirty katanas for the King to give out. Now, Lutz only has to do three of them, but the three have to be able to have a four-jewel enchantment, which is very difficult. Lutz finds that he is at the point where unless he interviews the recipients in advance, he simply CAN”T make the katanas work. So he goes to the capital and meets the three recipients – one is normal and a minor character, one is GAR as I mentioned above, and one is tortured and emo as I also mentioned above. Lutz is particularly worried about the last captain, who asks for a katana that can be taken up by the person who kills him. Lutz sensibly instead gives him a katana to protect against ambushes. Unfortunately, the plot will not be denied…

While I will admit the series is full of manly men being manly, I will praise it for not neglecting the women. The third princess shows up again, and while she acts childish and spoiled in front of Claudia (because she can), everyone else is worried that she now has what amounts to a private army loyal only to her, which could potentially attempt a coup. We also meet Leonard’s sister Karen (Leonard is the guilt-ridden knight), who is very sensible and wants nothing more than to be rid of all the trappings of the kingdom that led to everything her brother has gone through, but who is also in a testosterone-laden book, so when she gets mad at Leonard’s knight for whining too much she reaches out and squeezes his balls while saying he’s a loser. I like her.

Unfortunately for everyone reading this, it’s a two-parter, so we’ll have to wait to see what happens. Fortunately, 7 is out in January. Recommended for all, even those not fond of manly men. It’s a really compelling series.